Thursday, October 7, 2010

Fairy House

Also at the zoo is a wonderful butterfly house. The entomologists keep the house stocked with exotic butterflies from March through November, importing chrysalis from all over the world to ensure a steady supply of the short lived butterfly.

It costs extra to see the butterflies. It was $1 but this weekend it was bumped up to $1.50. You know, weekend inflation. You should hear the people grumbling and complaining about having to spend an extra $1.50 to go in to see the butterflies. "UGH. I can't BELIEVE they charge to go in there! We already paid to get into the zoo. I guess it's just another way for them to screw us!" That last part is an actual quote from a conversation I eavesdropped on this weekend.

Per-lease people. It only costs $10 to get in the zoo in the first place and if $3 is going to break your bank then you better get the heck out of here before you have a fit from the $4 Coke in the commemorative zoo cup.

In case you are wondering, they charge more for the butterflies because they are expensive to import, keep alive, and replace. Most species die after only 2 weeks so it's an ongoing process to make it pretty for us gripey bipeds.

Oh, and if you don't want to pay, you don't have to. So there!

OK, that's enough griping. Let's see some durn butterflies!

Ahh! Look at her face full of wonderment and awe! It's about time.

The first time we visited the butterfly house Phoebe screamed and demanded to be held the whole time because she was scared of the butterflies swooping all over the place.

Not this time! Maybe it was because we had just found her after losing her in the crowd for a good five minutes while I screamed and panicked and Jerry ran around and I yelled some more and finally when I was about to die we found her NOT where she was supposed to be. Maybe she realized THAT was a good reason to be scared, not a bunch of beautiful butterflies.

Phew!

Josh learned pretty well how to poke his finger under a resting butterfly to get one up on his finger. This is a Blue Morpho butterfly of Go, Diego, Go! fame. They are brown and black with a predator deflecting faux eye on the outside of their wings but when they spread wide they are a beautiful iridescent blue on the inside.

Paige liked to steal the butterflies other people caught when she wasn't busy trying to pick up Phoebe. That's just her way.

Here's the inside of the Blue Morpho butterfly. Isn't it gorgeous? I tried and tried and tried to get one to hold still and finally I found one clinging to the shirt of another zoo guest.

Ever seen the movie The Tooth Fairy with The Rock, Dwayne Johnson?

And we've been telling Paige the tooth fairy is make believe all of these years!!!